


'sL^/m - >r 





OLD MANCHESTER. 

A SERIES OF VIEWS 

OF THE MORE- ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN MANCHESTER AND ITS 
VICINITY, AS THEY APPEARED FIFTY YEARS AGO. 

Drawn by RALSTON, JAMES, and Others, 

AND REPRODUCED BY THE AUTOTYPE PROCESS 

By ALFRED BROTHERS, F.R.A.S. 



AN INTRODUCTION 

Bv JAMES CROSTON, F.S.A., F.R.Hist.Sc 

AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT HALL OF SAMLESBURY," 

"OLD MANCHESTER AND ITS WORTHIES," 

ETC. ETC. 



MANCHESTER: 
J. E. CORNISH, PICCADILLY. 

1875. 




^676 







LIST OF PLATES, 



i. Frontispiece (adapted to the present work) from "Jackson's Views of Manchester Streets." 
Painted by Mr. Mather Brown, principal Artist to H.R.H. the Duke of York. Drawn on 
Stone by A. Aglio. 1823. 
2. Market Place. Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by J. D. Harding. Printed by C. Hul- 
mandel. 
. 3. Market Street (lower end). Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by J. D. Harding. Printed by 
Hulmandel. 

4. Market Street (lower end). Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by A. Aglio. Printed by 

Chater and Co. 

5. Dr. White's House, King Street (the site of the present Town Hall). Drawn by J. Ralston 

and on stone by A. Aglio. Printed by Chater and Co. 

6. Mr. Hyde's Shop, Market Street. Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone and printed by A. Aglio. 

7. Market Street (near Hyde's shop). Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by A. Aglio. Printed 

by N. Chater and Co. 

8. Blackfriars Bridge. Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by A. Aglio. Printed by Chater 

and Co. 

9. Salford Cross. Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by G. Harley, the figures by D. Dighton. 

Printed by W. Day. 

10. Salford Cross (another view, showing the Stocks). Drawn on stone by J. Ralston, and printed 

by Rowney and Foster. 

1 1. Middle of Market Street. Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by A^ Aglio. 

12. Top of Market Street. Drawn by J. Ralston, and on stone by A. Aglio. 

b 



OLD MANCHESTER. 



The following 36 Plates are from the work usually known as " James's Views," 
published May 9, 1825. 

13. Garratt Hall. (1) 

14. Old Church and Bridge, from Blackfriars. (2) 

15. Old House, top of Smithy Door. (3) 

16. Saint Augustine's Chapel. (4) 

17. College Old Gate and Grammar School. (5) 

18. Woolpack, Deansgate. (6) 

19. East View of Crumpsall Hall, formerly the residence of Humphrey Chetham. (7) 
. 20. Old Buildings, taken down, near Strangeways Bridge. (8) 

2t. Antiquities found at Hulme. (9) 

22. Residence of the Head Master of the Grammar School, Long Mill Gate. (10) 

23. Southerly View of Market Street. (11) 

24. Hulme Hall. (12) 

25. Blackley Hall. (13) 

26. Old House, Market Street. (14) 

27. North View of Crumpsall Hall, the birthplace of Humphrey Chetham. (15) 

28. North View of the College. (16) 

29. Old House in Deansgate. (17) 

30. Cottages at Broughton Spout. (18) 

31. Ancoats Hall. (19) 

32. Part of the Market Place. (20) 

' 33. Old Building, Cross Lane, Salford. (21) 

34. Old Buildings near Strangeways Bridge. (22) 

35. Old Buildings, Long Mill Gate. (23) 

36. Ordsall Hall. (24) 

37. Old Buildings, formerly occupying the site of the Royal Exchange. (25) 

38. Old Blackfriars Bridge. (26) 
• 39. Prestwich Rectory. (27) 

40. East View of Hulme Hall. (28) 
' 41. West View of Trafford Park (from a drawing by Mrs. Petteward). (29) 

42. Old Church and Bridge. (30) 
. 43. Market Street. (31) 

44. Blackfriars Bridge. (32) 

45. Turton Tower, formerly the residence of Humphrey Chetham. {t>Z) 

46. Smithy Door. (34) 

47. Broughton Hall. (35) 

48. Salford Cross. (36) 



OLD MANCHESTER. v. 

The following Plates are from the original Drawings by j . Ralston (1822), and 
have never before been published. 

49. Market Place and lower end of Market Street. 

50. Corner of Brown Street and Market Street. 

51. Entrance to Cross Street, Market Street. 

52. Thatched House Tavern, back of Market Street. 

53. Lower end of King Street. 

54. Lower end of Market Street. 

55. Market Street. 

56. Harrop's Printing Office and Hyde's Shop, Market Street. 



57. Smithy Door. 

58. Palace Inn, Market Street Lane. 

59. Plan of Market Street before it was widened. 

60. Map of Manchester (1772). 



OLD MANCHESTER. 



"PIFTY years have wrought a mighty change in the aspect of " Old Man- 
chester," — a change, greater perhaps than any other provincial town can 
show. In that period the hand of the improver has been busily employed, and 
comparatively little now remains to show how the commercial city of the present 
is linked with the small trading town of the past. Fifty years ago, though the 
place had increased in size as well as in wealth from the time when, a century pre- 
viously, Dr. Stukeley, in his " Itinerarium Curiosum," described it as " the largest, 
most rich, populous and busy village in England," it still retained its ancient 
features, comparatively unimpaired. In the district immediately surrounding the 
Collegiate Church — the present Cathedral, — which then constituted the centre 
of the town, the streets were dingy, intricate, and ill -paved, and in many places 
so confined as to be perilous to the safety of the wayfarer. The houses bore 
the impress of antiquity, and scarcely a modern erection broke in upon the 
irregular line of buildings that had served as the dwelling-places of the Man- 
chestrians for long generations previously. Quaint and picturesque were these 
memorials of former days ; built, like so many of the houses in Lancashire and 
Cheshire, of wood and plaster, wrought in curious diaper-like patterns of black 
and white, with mullioned and latticed windows, overhanging roofs and gables, 
and grotesquely-carved hip-knobs, cornices, and pendants, presenting a marked 
contrast to the more stately, though not more ornate, erections with which the 
present generation is familiar. 

Of these memorials of old Manchester scarcely a remnant has been pre- 
served, the improvements that have been effected during the last half-century 
having swept away almost every trace. Though the veritable buildings have 
disappeared, the artist's skill has happily perpetuated the outlines, and made us 



( 2 ) 

familiar with their general characteristics. About the year 1822 was published 
Jackson's " Views of Manchester Streets," comprising twelve illustrations from 
drawings by J. Ralston; this work was succeeded in 1825 by a series of thirty- 
six lithographic views by James. Both these works, are now reproduced by the 
autotype process ; and to them have been added eight facsimiles of drawings 
by J. Ralston, from the originals in the possession of Richard Wood, Esq., of 
Whalley Range, which are now for the first time published, with other plates 
illustrative of Manchester in bygone days. 

It is possible that exception may be taken by some to the rough and 
unfinished character of these illustrations ; but the desire has been to reproduce 
them in their exact form and original homeliness, without excess or diminution 
of line or feature. At the time they were produced, the art which Senefelder 
invented had only lately come into practice ; and as these pictures are submitted 
in their veritable similitude without any adventitious graces, it is believed they 
may on that account possess an interest as showing the great advance that has 
been made in artistic lithography since they issued from the press. 

It is just a century since the first attempt to improve and widen the 
thoroughfares of Manchester was made. On the 2nd March, 1775, a meeting 
was held at that antiquated hostelry the Bull's Head, in the Market-place, at 
which a subscription was commenced for purchasing the buildings necessary for 
widening the old Mill-gate, St. Mary's-gate, and the passage leading from the 
Exchange to St. Ann's-square. Ten thousand pounds was the estimated sum 
required, and by the 25th July in the same year the secretary of the fund was 
able to announce that £10,771. 3s. 6d. had been contributed by sundry public- 
spirited individuals connected with the town. Some idea may be formed of the 
condition of these streets when it is remembered that Market-street, or Market- 
sted-lane * as it was then called, a narrow, tortuous thoroughfare, as the illustra- 
tions show, was thought to be a spacious street, and pronounced to be too wide 
to require 'any alteration. The building that gave name to Exchange-street, 
a view of which appears on the map of Manchester in 1772, was a somewhat 

* Sted or stead is here used in the old Anglo-Saxon sense of" place," as it is still retained in our words 
"home-stead," " farm-stead," &c. ; the meaning being obviously Market-place lane, or the lane leading from 
the Market-place. The name is of frequent occurrence in the Court Leet records of the sixteenth century, 
where it is variously written Market-sted and Market-stid lane : it was subsequently corrupted into the 
anomalous appellation of Market-street-lane. 



( 3 ) 

heavy-looking structure of classic design, built in 1729 at the cost of Sir Oswald 
Mosley, then lord of the manor. It occupied the site of the old " Booths," on 
the opposite side of Market-street to the present Exchange, and served the 
threefold purpose of an Exchange, a butchers' market, and sessions and manor 
court-house ; it was also used for theatrical performances before the old theatre 
was built on the site of the present Olivo's-buildings, at the corner of Brown- 
street and Marsden-street. 

Before the opening of Exchange-street in 1776, the only approach to 
St. Ann's- square, then the fashionable quarter, was, for pedestrians, by a narrow 
gloomy passage called Acre's court, but more popularly known by the name 
of Dark Entry, that led beneath the Eagle and Child coffee-house, and across 
an open court in which stood a pump. This coffee-house, with the picturesque 
group of gabled buildings adjoining it, is represented in No. 37 of James's views, 
and has been referred to by John Taylor, the Water-Poet, in his " Pennyless 
Pilgrimage." 

I lodged at the Eagle and the Child, 
Whereat my hostess (a good ancient woman) 
Did entertain me with respect not common. 

So Mistress Saracole,* hostess kind, 
And Manchester with thanks I left behind. 

The approach to the Square for vehicles was by a covered gateway, shown 
in the same view, at the further end of which was a cobbler's stall, with a stair- 
case leading to the coffee-house ; and here also were the entrances to two other 
taverns, the Dog and the Goose. 

After the completion of the improvements projected in 1775 no further 
alterations were attempted for several years, though complaints were frequently 
made of the narrowness of the streets, and the inconvenience caused by the 
crowding of them with carts and waggons, which were allowed to remain on 
market-days, few of the inns having yards attached to them ; indeed, little effort 
seems to have been made to prevent encroachment or obstruction, for, if we may 
judge from the illustrations, the principal thoroughfare was made the general 
packing-place of the town. 

* In the register of burials at the Collegiate Church the following entry occurs, under date 1628: — 
"Aprill29. — Robarte Soracould, of Manchester, innkeeper," the husband, probably, of "Mistress 



( 4 ) 

Eventually, the doom of Market-sted-lane was pronounced. This street 
had long been inadequate to the convenient carrying on of the vast traffic with 
which it was continually crowded. To remedy the increasing evil, plans were 
prepared, and in 1821 an Act of Parliament was obtained to improve and widen 
it to the extent of twenty-one yards ; and at the same time certain other 
approaches, avenues, and communications opening thereto, namely, the bottom 
of King-street, Hunter's-lane (the lower end of Cannon-street), Nicholas-croft, 
Toad-lane (Todd-street), and Toll-lane (the Deansgate end of St. Ann's-street), 
were also widened ; the cost of the improvements being about ,£200,000. The 
preamble to the Act sets forth that Market-street, " which is the principal 
thoroughfare of the town, is very narrow and inconvenient, and is in its present 
state dangerous for the persons and carriages passing through the same, and the 
trade and commerce of the said town have been much obstructed and injured, 
and various serious accidents have occurred, and many lives have been lost in 
consequence thereof." 

It is difficult at the present day to realize what the appearance of this part 
of the town was before the alterations were made. Market-street was then only 
a narrow, tortuous lane, with tall, grimy buildings on each side, and so con- 
fined in places as hardly to allow space for two carts to pass, or a vehicle to 
turn round. 

The first view in Ralston's series is taken from the lower end of Market- 
street, and represents the Market-place as it appeared before the alterations ; 
a copy of the original sketch from which it is taken is also given in our 
fac-similes of Ralston's drawings, and a view from the same point is given 
in No. 32 of James's work. In this plate a busy yet homely scene meets 
the eye, the short contracted area with its confined approaches being 
crowded with stalls, on which are displayed almost every conceivable com- 
modity, whilst carts, carriages, and wheelbarrows contend for space with a 
motley throng of hucksters and housewives, who seem entangled in inextricable 
confusion. The first building in the Market-place of which any record has been 
preserved was the " Booths," a timber structure, in which the town's Port- 
motes or Boroughreeve's Court and the Courts Leet and Baron of the feudal 
lords were held, and to which were subsequently added the Petty and Quarter 
Sessions. For centuries this was the only erection, and it was not unfrequently 
adorned with the heads of rebels and other criminals. To the " Booths " was 



( 5 ) 

added the old Exchange, which, as already stated, was taken down in 1792, the 
site being subsequently known by the name of Pennyless-hill, from the number 
of unemployed people who usually assembled there for hire ; close by was the 
Cross, which, from the position marked on the plan of Manchester in 1650, 
occupied a portion of the site of the present fish-market, and contiguous were 
the pillory and the stocks, which were removed in 181 2. Stalls and standings 
were no doubt erected from time to time, but the " Booths" appears to have 
been the only building in the Market-place until about the year 1475, when a 
shop was erected by one of the Traffords. " In the rentall of Thomas West, 
Lord de la Warr," says Hollingworth, " mencion is made of John Trafford, 
Knight, houlding one parcel of wast lying in Manchester, neere to the Booths, 
upon which onely one shop was then lately builded." 

The building with the projecting staircase and railed terrace shown in our 
view was for many years the printing-office of Mr, Whitworth, and here an 
early local periodical, Whitworth 's Manchester Gazette, had its birth December 
22, 1 730. The name was soon after changed to the Manchester Magazine, which 
continued to be published weekly for nearly twenty years. Mr. Whitworth was 
succeeded in his business by his son-in-law, Mr. Joseph Harrop, who established 
the Mercury March 3, 1752, a journal that outlived many competitors, and con- 
tinued its weekly circulation until a short time before the building in which it 
originated was pulled down, when it became merged in the Manchester Guardian, 
the first number of which appeared Saturday, May 5, 1821. Mr. Harrop filled 
the office of Postmaster, and for a long series of years the postal business of the 
town was conducted on his premises. These, with the gabled building adjoin- 
ing, occupied by Mr. Fawcett, silversmith, were taken down in order to widen 
the street, which at this point, as will be seen by the vista opening into Market- 
street, was extremely narrow. 

Of the Market-street of yore there are several illustrations : Ralston sup- 
plies six different lithographic views, in addition to the original sketches, and 
there are four plates in James's work. The first view (No. 3) is taken from a 
point near the entrance to Cross-street, looking towards St. Mary's-gate. On 
the right is a group of half-timbered buildings, comprising four shops, with 
the signboard of Mr. Styan, a gun-maker, of some note in his day, placed con- 
spicuously over the door of one. On the other side, in sharp perspective, we 
have the shop of Mr. Newall, a name that became famous in after-years, Newall's- 



( 6 ) 

buildings, which he erected on the site, having been the home of the Anti- Corn- 
law League. 

Our next illustration (No. 4) is taken from the opposite side of the street, 
and gives a more detailed representation of Mr. Newall's shop ; below it are two 
quaint-looking structures with projecting gables, and in the distance a glimpse 
is afforded of the Exchange, the view being continued into St. Mary's-gate. No 
more picturesque building was to be found in Market-street than the shop of 
Mr. Hyde (No. 6), a noted cheese and butter merchant, situated a little below 
the entrance to Wright's-court. The drawing presents us with an excellent 
specimen of domestic architecture of the late Tudor period, the timber-work 
both in the main structure and in the projecting oriel being of very elaborate 
character, and arranged in curious diaper and foliated patterns. Scarcely less 
ornate is the gable over the shop of Mr. Walker, ironmonger, adjoining, which 
occupied as nearly as possible the site of the present establishment at the 
corner of Pall-mall ; here the timbers are disposed in geometric patterns, and 
the cornices and beams appear to have been very elaborately carved. The 
original sketch for this drawing will be found in No. 56, and a similar view 
appears in No. 26 of James's series. No. 7 gives a more general view of 
Market-street from near the corner of the present New Brown-street, looking 
towards the Exchange. It includes, in addition to the shop of Mr. Hyde, that 
of Mr. Hemingway, silversmith, and the premises of Mr. Sharpe, who filled 
the office of Boroughreeve of Manchester in 18 19. The original sketch from 
which the lithograph was made is reproduced in No. 55, and there is also a view 
by James taken from very nearly the same point, No. 43. In No. 11 the work 
of demolition appears to have commenced, a heap of dSbris marking the opening 
leading to the New Market. The low building with " State Lottery Office" 
inscribed over the windows was occupied by Mr. Joseph Merone, printseller, 
who continued the same business on very nearly the same spot for a long 
series of years. Adjoining is a modest-looking tavern, the Red Lion, kept at 
the time by one Mrs. Nancy Knight, who migrated into Salford on the demo- 
lition of her house. The large modern structure on the other side comprised 
the premises of Mr. Wicksted, Mr. Salter, and those of Messrs. Zanetti and 
Agnew, printsellers, the latter being the founder of the well-known firm of 
Messrs. Thomas Agnew & Sons. 



( 7 ) 

The last of Ralston's series of views (No. 12) is taken from the corner of 
Brown-street looking towards Piccadilly, and includes the range of buildings 
that extended to Spring-gardens, and thence to Fountain-street. Standing 
a little way back from the main line is a picturesque half-timbered erection 
with gabled roofs, comprising two shops, one known as Beaumont's eating- 
house, and the other belonging to Mr. Bennett, who combined with the business 
of a picture-frame maker that of a filter manufacturer. A better view of this 
building by the same artist will be found in No. 50. Messrs. D. & P. Jackson, 
the publishers of Ralston's views, occupied the shop at the corner of Spring- 
gardens, and a public-house bearing the sign of the Royal Oak stood at the 
opposite corner. The other erections appear to be of comparatively modern 
date, and possess little interest. On the opposite side of the street a glimpse is 
caught of the Swan, a well-known posting-house in the old stage-coaching days, 
and in front is characteristically portrayed a busy, bustling throng of travellers, 
apparently about to take their departure by the London stage. 

There are two additional drawings from the pencil of Ralston that do not 
appear in his published work. No. 51 presents us with a view of the covered 
gateway, or passage, which half a century ago formed the only approach from 
Market-street to Cross-street, or Pool-fold, as it was then called. In this building 
a local celebrity of somewhat eccentric character, Mr. John Hopps, kept a circu- 
lating-library for many years. He also carried on the business of a bookseller. 
It is said that it was his custom, when going away for his summer holidays, to 
close the shop for several weeks at a time. On one occasion, when ill, he closed 
the establishment, and affixed to the shutters the following notice : — 

I, John Hopp, 

Can't come to my shop, 

Because I, John Hopp, am ill ; 

But I, John Hopp, 

Will come to my shop 

When I, John Hopp, get welL 

Mr. Hopps died in 1823, at the advanced age of eighty-three, but the book- 
selling business, together with the library, remained in his family until 1840. 
Adjoining the gateway is an antiquated hostelry, the Pack-horse, kept, as the 
sign testifies, by John Frost. A continuation of this building is shown in No. 54 ; 



( 3 ) 

adjoining it, and abutting upon the opening leading to the New Market,* is a 
gabled erection of three stories, tenanted by Mr. Hayes, hatter, the father of 
the Rev. John Hayes, who in 1840 was appointed to the incumbency of Har- 
purhey, near Manchester. 

In addition to those already mentioned, there are two views of Market- 
street in James's series ; one, No. 23, taken from the Exchange flags, looking 
towards Piccadilly, showing on one side the group of buildings at the corner 
of the Market-place, and on the other the shop of Mr. Shaw, saddler, which 
stood at the corner of Ducie-place, the site being now covered by the 
Royal Exchange. The other view, No. 37, is copied from a drawing made 
by Thomas Barritt, the antiquary, in the latter part of the last century, and 
represents the block of buildings that were removed in 1776 to form the 
present approach to St. Ann's-square. This may, in truth, be called the group 
with many gables ; the buildings stand in an in-and-out hap-hazard sort of 
way, and each tenement, it will be noticed, has an acutely-pointed roof with 
overhanging barge-boards crowned at the apex with a grotesquely-carved hip- 
knob. On the right is the bookshop of the Newtons, the resort in former 
times of the gossips of the town, who, as we learn from the reminiscences of 
an aged resident, published in the second volume of Harland's " Collectanea," 
" used to go to know what the bells were ringing for." The shop was kept by 
two brothers, noted bibliopolists, Thomas and William, the sons of Thomas 
Newton, who kept the old coffee-house adjoining. Another member of the 
family, John, the uncle of the booksellers, filled at the time the office of 
parish clerk. William, the younger of the two brothers, married in 1762, 
the event being thus circumstantially chronicled in the local newspapers of 
the day : — 

" On Tuesday last was married at the Collegiate Church Mr. William 
Newton, bookseller, to Miss Farren, an agreeable young lady with a handsome 
fortune." 

To this couple was born a son, Thomas, who entered the Grammar School 
in 1773, and was subsequently admitted to holy orders. 

* The New Market stood behind the present Stock-exchange. It was erected in 1781, by Messrs. 
Chadwick and Ackers, on a plot of land known as Pool-fold and Hyde-park, the name being still preserved 
in New Market-lane. 



( 9 ) 

The " Old Coffee-house," or Eagle and Child, as it was more correctly 
designated, where Taylor, the " Water Poet," lodged while on his " Pennyless 
Pilgrimage," we have before referred to. Beneath its ancient roof a good 
deal of public business was transacted, questions affecting the welfare and 
prosperity of the town were discussed, and for years the Commissioners in 
Bankruptcy made it their place of meeting. Under the Old Coffee-house was a 
passage known as Fox-entry, from the public-house of that sign, where lived 
also Mr. Fox, tea-dealer, whose son, William Fox, became the head of the firm 
of Fox, Sharpe, & Eccles, attorneys, of St. Ann's-churchyard, now represented 
by Messrs. Slater & Heelis. Mr. Fox afterwards quitted the legal profession, 
and became a banker in Manchester, in partnership with Messrs. Allen & Sedg- 
wick : the firm was afterwards known by the name of Jones, Fox, & Co. ; and 
subsequently of William Jones, Loyds, & Co. ; Loyd, Entwistle, & Co. ; and 
now the Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company. Our illustration 
preserves the names of other old Manchester residents, one a saddler, bearing 
the appropriate name of Whip, the father of Samuel Whip, whose name appears 
in the admission register of the Grammar School under date 1767. Another 
name perpetuated is that of an opulent drysalter, who was also famed as a 
liberal and intelligent patron of the arts : William Hardman, a son of John 
Hardman, who filled the office of Constable of Manchester in 1 757, and Borough- 
reeve in 1765. Mr. Hardman, who resided in the large house in Quay-street, 
previously occupied by Lady Egerton, the mother of Thomas, first Earl of 
Wilton, and known in later years as Owen's College, was a man of refined taste, 
and became the possessor of a collection of paintings, in the purchase of which 
he is said to have expended from ,£30,000 to ,£40,000. He married in 1768 
Mary Anne, daughter of Mr. Joshua Lawton, of Dobcross, a wealthy heiress, 
and by her had two sons; John, who married Mary, daughter of Mr. Joseph 
Tipping, of Crumpsall Hall, the representative of an old Manchester family, and 
Thomas, known in early life by the name of " Antinous," but in later years by 
the popular sobriquet of " the handsome bachelor." Alicia, a sister of William 
Hardman, is described as having been one of the most celebrated beauties of the 
day, and her charms, it would seem, inspired the muse of the Rev. J. Haddon 
Hindley, one of the chaplains of the Collegiate Church, who addressed some 
verses to her which are published in Wilson's " Miscellanies." To the left of 



( io ) 

the saddler's shop is a passage leading to Rushton's punch-house, a friendly 
rival of John Shaw's. Above this, and extending over some of the other shops, 
were the coffee and dining-rooms of Mrs. Budworth, in one of which Captain 
Monsey, of the 29th regiment, and Cornet Hamilton fought a duel with swords 
after they had been baiting a badger at Mr. Falkner Phillips's, at Badger Hall, 
March 21, 1783, when Captain Monsey was killed. 

Not the least interesting of the views in Ralston's work is that of Mr. White's 
house in King-street, a stately residence of brick, which occupied the site of the 
present Town-hall. Charles White, F.R.S., a son of Dr. Thomas White, is justly 
accounted one of the worthies of Manchester : he was an eminent surgeon and 
author, long resident in the town, and the co-founder, with Mr. Joseph Bancroft, 
of the Manchester Infirmary. He was one of the first Vice-presidents of the 
Literary and Philosophical Society on its origination in 1781, and in the third 
volume of its " Memoirs " (new series) there is a lengthy biographical notice of 
him from the pen of Mr. Thomas Henry, F.R.S. After a long life of unre- 
mitting exertion and public usefulness, he died, February 20th, 1813, in the 
eighty-fifth year of his age, and was buried at Ashton-upon-Mersey. Thomas, 
the eldest of his three sons, who was alike eminent in his day for the practice 
of surgery, was the father of the late John White, Esq., of Sale Hall, Ashton- 
upon-Mersey, who was High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1823, and famous for his 
fox-hunting and equestrian exploits. A view of the house in King-street is 
given in Casson and Berrey's maps of the town in 1746, 1 75 1, and 1755, and it 
is there named as Mr. Croxton's. Mr. George Croxton was an opulent merchant 
of Manchester ; in 1743 he purchased the estate of Birch Hall, in Rusholme, 
from Humphrey Birch, a grandson of the famous parliamentary commander 
Colonel Birch, a property he sold two years later to Mr. John Dickinson, of 
Market-street-lane, who in the same year lodged Charles Edward Stuart 
during his stay in Manchester. 

The original Blackfriars-bridge, views of which are given in Nos. 8 and 38, 
was a temporary erection of wood for foot-passengers only, built in 1 76 1 by a 
company of London players (those of Drury-lane and Covent-garden combined) 
for the accommodation of such of the votaries of Thespis as might wish to cross 
the river to witness their performances in the theatre of the Riding-school in 
Water-street (now Blackfriars-street), where they had established themselves in 
opposition to the well-known James Whiteley, who at the time had the manage- 



( II ) 

ment of the theatre in Brown-street. Aston thus alludes to the circumstance in 
his " Metrical Records" : — 

In the years seventeen-sixty and sixty-and-one, 

The town by the players was well play'd upon ; 

Old "VVhiteley possession had got of the town, 

But the two London houses join'd force and came down, 

And, no place being vacant that was near to the centre, 

They determined in Salford to try their adventure ; 

Erected a building, erected a stage, 

To act o'er the passions of man and the age ; 

And to tempt the Manchestrians, made steps down the ridge, 

And over the river threw Blackfriars Bridge. 

The bridge remained for more than half a century after their departure, 
though it was always difficult of access, the approach being by a narrow passage 
called the Ring-'o-bells entry, leading from Deansgate, and thence by a flight 
of twenty-nine steps. It was superseded by the present stone bridge, shown in 
No. 44, which was erected in 1820 at a cost of ,£9,000, the subscribers being 
entitled, by the Act of Parliament under which it was built, to re-imburse them- 
selves by a toll, that continued to be exacted from both passengers and vehicles 
until within the last few years, when the bridge was made free. 

Until 1 76 1, the only means of communication between the township of 
Manchester and that of Salford was by the old or Salford bridge, an ancient 
erection of three arches, built in the reign of the third Edward. In 1638, 
Thomas del Bothe, of Barton, a wealthy yeoman, bequeathed by will ,£30, to 
be paid in the three years following his death, in equal portions, towards the 
erection of the bridge, or rather of a chapel upon it, in which prayers were to be 
offered by grateful wayfarers for the repose of the soul of the founder. This chapel 
was rebuilt in 1505, but was allowed to fall into decay after the Reformation. 
Subsequently, and for more than a century, it served the purpose of a dungeon, 
and was finally removed in 1776, when the bridge was widened. In its original 
state it was very steep, and so narrow as to be dangerous to foot-passengers, 
the angular recesses on the piers affording them the only chance of escape in 
case of meeting a vehicle upon it. After an existence of nearly five hundred 
years, the venerable pile was indicted at the Quarter Sessions for the Hundred 
of Salford, October 1836, and pronounced to be insufficient in roadway, footway, 
and waterway ; and in September of the following year the work of demolition 



( 12 ) 

was commenced, a temporary structure of wood for foot-passengers having in the 
mean time been erected. Some idea of the rude and primitive manner in which 
the " Old Bridge " was constructed may be formed from the following announce- 
ment, which appeared in the Manchester Guardian for March 27, 1839 : — 

" On removing the keystones of the arch on the Salford side, the whole 
of the masonry from the. keystone to the centre pier fell over at once into the 
river, precipitating three or four of the workmen into the water ; but, fortunately, 
none of them received any more serious injury than a considerable fright and 
a thorough ducking. On examining the centre pier, it was found to be quite 
untouched and unshaken, each of the three arches having merely pressed upon 
or rested against the outer surfaces of the piers and abutments." 

The first stone of the present Victoria Bridge, erected upon its site, was 
laid March 31, 1838, on a bed of sandstone rock, about twelve feet below the 
surface of the water, by Mr. (now Sir) Elkanah Armitage, Boroughreeve of 
Salford : the last keystone was fixed by the present Sir Humphrey Trafford, 
23rd March, 1839, and the bridge was finally opened to the public June 20, 
1839, the second anniversary of Her Majesty's accession. James furnishes us 
with two views of the Old Bridge. No. 14 is taken from the Salford side of 
the stream, near Blackfriars, showing the steep sandstone cliffs, on the verge 
of which are seen the manufactories and dwellings that extend along the line 
of the Parsonage, with the tower of the Collegiate Church forming a prominent 
object in the middle distance. The other view, No. 42, is taken from the bend 
of the river at Hunt's Bank, and shows the unsightly and huddled mass of 
buildings which occupied the site of the present roadway in front of the 
Cathedral, and reached down to the very edge of the water. On the extreme 
left is seen the "Castle" (afterwards the College) inn, which a local poet, 
Charles Kenworthy, has thus immortalized : — 

The " Castle," that long braved the flood, 
Where oft was brewed stout ale and good, 

A College Inn is seen : 
Where frowned the ancient dungeon wall 
Rise modern buildings, fair and tall, 

And stables, palatine. 

Contiguous to the " Castle " was the dungeon, known in its earlier days as 
the New Fleet, a place that was crowded during the stormy days of Elizabeth's 



( 13 ) 

reign with recusant prisoners, who had been hunted out, with keen rapacity, by 
an odious swarm of Reformers, who earned a base living by augmenting the 
miseries of their unfortunate fellow-creatures. The roadway at this point was 
extremely confined, there being barely room for two carts to pass ; the build- 
ings along the riverside were piled step upon step from the water's edge to the 
churchyard above, which was then approached by a narrow flagged footpath, 
the only direct way from Strangeways to Smithy-door, vehicles proceeding to 
Market-street being compelled to go round by way of Long-millgate, Fennel- 
street, and Hanging-ditch. 

Another memento of bygone times is preserved to us in the three views of 
Salford Cross, which, though differing slightly in detail, are all taken from nearly 
the same point. Two, Nos. 9 and 10, are from the pencil of Ralston, the third, 
No. 48, being from that of James. The Cross, a lofty fluted column of the 
Doric order, resting upon a square base raised above the roadway by a couple 
of steps, and surmounted by a crown, stood upon the open space of ground in 
Greengate, nearly opposite the end of Gravel-lane. Conveniently placed at the 
foot, as shown in one of our illustrations, were the stocks, in which bibulous 
Britons were wont in former days to meditate upon the evils of intemperance. 
In Casson and Berrey's map, already referred to, as also in that of Laurent, 
published in 1793, the Court-house is marked as standing a little above the 
Cross, and nearer the point of junction with Gravel-lane ; but this had disap- 
peared some time before the Cross itself was removed. 

John Wesley, in his earlier visits to Lancashire, found the people very 
difficult to manage, and in Salford he met with a reception more warm than 
welcome. He preached from the steps of the Cross, when one spirit, more 
turbulent than the others, threatened to bring out the engine and play upon 
him. The incident is thus recorded in his " Journal," under date May, 1747 : — 
" I walked straight to Salford Cross. A numberless crowd of people partly 
ran before, partly followed after me. I thought it best not to sing, but, looking 
round, asked abruptly, ' Why do you look as if you had never seen me before ? 
Many of you have seen me in the neighbouring church both preaching and 
administering the sacrament.' I then began. As I was drawing to a conclusion, 
a big man thrust in with three or four more, and bade them bring out the 
engine. Our friends desired me to remove into a yard just by, which I did, and 
concluded in peace." 



( H ) 

Though the Cross has vanished, the picturesque group of half-timbered 
habitations shown in the background still remain, though shorn of many of their 
more antiquated features. One of them, the " Bull's Head," was in early times, 
so tradition tells us, the residence of the Aliens,- an offshoot of the Aliens of 
Rossal, in Lancashire, of whom the most remarkable was the English Cardinal, 
William Allen, the traitorous apologist of Sir William Stanley's perfidy and 
treason. 

Of the many people who in these days frequent the comfortable parlour of 
the " Thatched House" how few there are who have a thought of the humble 
hostel from which it took its name. Ralston has preserved the outline in one 
of his sketches (No. 52), which we have reproduced, but neither he nor James 
appears to have thought it worth perpetuating in their published series. Though 
never a political rendezvous like the Bull's Head, nor a home of the Muses like 
the Sun, in Long-millgate, the Thatched was yet a house of note even in the 
days of the Georges, being then a favourite resort of the more opulent trades- 
men, as well as of the country manufacturers who came into the town on market 
days. The story is told, though on somewhat doubtful authority, that in the 
days of the " merry monarch " a thirsty rhymster who had run up a score offered 
to compromise matters with the landlord by writing a poetical inscription for 
the sign-board, then being newly painted. The offer was good-humouredly 
'accepted, and the following lines were produced : — 

Ye farmer 'neath thatch keepes his stacks fro the raine, 
For elsewise would perish his hay and his graine ; 
But here we see men (what a contrary set) 
Come under the thatch when they wish to get wet. 

The landlord failed to see the point of the epigram, and imagining that a reflec- 
tion was cast upon his patrons, kicked the unlucky poet into the street. 

Before the passing of the Improvement Act in 182 1, King-street extended 
only to Police-street, so named from the Police-court being situate there, the 
only means of communication with Deansgate from this point being by a narrow 
entry called Hatters'-lane. Some idea of the appearance of this part of the 
town may be formed from Ralston's sketch No. 53, which shows the lower end 
of King-street, with the group of buildings blocking the approach to Deansgate, 
then occupied as warehouse and stables by Messrs. James Holland & Co., who 



( i5 ) 

carried on an extensive business as carriers to Leeds, York, Hull, and other 
Yorkshire towns. 

Smithy-door. — Old Smithy-door, with its many and varied associations, 
has passed away. As we write, the last lingering memorial is being dug from its 
foundation, and soon the place will be nothing but a memory of the past. Few 
thoroughfares in the town have undergone such mutations of fortune ; though 
the street was narrow, and the buildings stood in close contiguity to each other, 
it was in its palmy days a place of some pretension, and inhabited by well-to-do 
people, as shown by the substantial character of their dwellings, and the regard 
that was paid to architectural effect. In the days of the eighth Harry, when 
Manchester was constituted a place of sanctuary for transgressors of the law, a 
privilege the inhabitants little valued, one of the sanctuary houses, as they were 
called, was erected in Smithy-door, the remains of which were found some 
years ago, on widening the thoroughfare for the present Victoria- street, — a half- 
timbered building, with a recessed oriel, apparently intended to receive an altar, 
and in which was discovered a head of the Virgin carved in wood. Here, too, 
in after-years, the members of that convivial confraternity, John Shaw's club. 
found sanctuary, and continued to hold their nocturnal symposia, when com- 
pelled by the ruthless hand of the improver to forsake their antiquated home in 
the Market-place. 

Our first view (No. 15) represents the quaint and interesting relic of bygone 
days which stood at the higher end of old Smithy-door, the Vintners Arms, or 
Sandiford's Vaults, by which latter name it was more popularly known. Fully 
three centuries must have elapsed since its erection ; during that time the fabric 
had been subjected to frequent renovations, and families of lowly lineage had 
taken the place of its once aristocratic occupants ; yet, even in its declining 
years, it maintained a smart and jaunty air, as if anxious to make the most of 
appearances, and to forget its fallen grandeur. The building was singularly 
irregular and picturesque in outline, and though presentiug many incongruities 
where the hand of the " improver" had been mischievously busy, it yet retained 
many of its more ancient characteristics to the last. The principal feature was 
a curious timber turret, or lantern, rising from between the two front gables, 
square, and surmounted by a low pyramidal roof. This lantern, which appeared 
to have been erected subsequent to the main structure, formed a small room, and 
from its elevated position must in earlier days have afforded a pleasant prospect 



( 16 ) 

of the surrounding neighbourhood. Of the early history of this old house com- 
paratively little is known. Mr. Procter, who has laboured so lovingly in the 
field of local antiquities, has, however, succeeded in rescuing a few records from 
oblivion. Basing his conjecture on an entry in Mrs. Raffald's Directory for 
1773, he supposes it at that time to have been the residence of John Syddal, 
whose social status is defined by the post-fix " gentleman," probably one of the 
Syddals of Slade, in Rusholme. Be that as it may, we have certain evidence 
that in 1 797 the old tenement had passed into the possession of Messrs. Saunders, 
Arrowsmith, & Co., who carried on the business of fustian manufacturers and 
importers of Irish linen ; seven years later it was in the occupation of Mr. 
Willmott, wine and spirit merchant, and it was then converted into a vault. 
The Willmotts had been public caterers in the town for many years previously, 
one of them having been the proprietor of " Rushton's " coffee-house, already 
referred to. In this family the old edifice continued for a period of forty years, 
when Mr. James Sandiford succeeded to the business, the Willmotts, however, 
retaining the ownership of the property. Subsequently it became known as 
" Deakin's Vaults," and that designation it preserved until it was taken down 
in this present year of grace, to make room for the stately pile about to be 
erected by the Corporation Property Company. When old Market-street-lane 
was widened, the materials of one of the most picturesque buildings were 
removed and re-erected in what was then a pleasant suburb of the town. The 
demolition of this interesting relic of the past may be a gain to the community 
at large, but we cannot help regretting that some loving hand was not found 
to follow the example of fifty years ago, and preserve elsewhere one of the 
most picturesque examples of domestic architecture of which Manchester could 
boast. 

No. 46 presents us with a view of Smithy-door looking towards Cateaton- 
street, and the steep incline known as Smithy-door-bank, leading down to the 
Old Bridge ; and we have also a cleverly-executed sketch from the same point 
in the drawing by the late Mr. John E. Gregan, an architect of considerable note 
in Manchester. On one side we have a huge gloomy-looking pile, in which 
the melancholy aspects of dilapidation and decay are strikingly manifest ; and 
on the other a picturesque grouping of gabled structures with projecting oriels 
and overhanging chambers, lighted by windows running the entire length. 
Tradition says that in days of yore one of these houses was the abode of that 



C i7 ) 

" resolved papist " but tolerant and generous-hearted divine " Master George 
Colly er," when recalled by Queen Mary, after he had been deprived of his war- 
denship by Edward the Sixth, and dispossessed of his collegiate residence, his 
office, and emoluments. Here too, in January 1 719, the first newspaper which 
graced the annals of Manchester, the Weekly Journal, was ushered into existence, 
having been, as the opening page sets forth, " printed by Roger Adams at the 
lower end of Smithy-door." Adams, who was a stout " Church-and-King man," 
subsequently removed to Chester, in which ancient city, until his death, he con- 
tinued the Chester Courant. Contemporary with him in Manchester were the 
Whitworths, three generations of which family were located in Smithy-door, — 
Zachary, a bookseller, who died in 1697 ; John, who died in 1727 ; and Robert, 
who removed to the Market-place, and, as we have already stated, published 
successively WhitwortJi s Manchester Gazette and the Manchester Magazine, 
newspapers advocating opposite views to those of the Weekly Journal. 

The most cherished, we had almost said the only remaining, monument of 
antiquity is the secluded building known as Humphrey Chetham's Hospital 
and Library, once the baronial retreat and subsequently the abode of the colle- 
giate body. The memories of this last lingering relic of ancient Manchester 
are manifold. Whitaker, the historian, has laboured sedulously, though unsuc- 
cessfully, to prove that it was originally the prsetorium or summer camp of the 
Roman legionaries at the time they had established themselves in. the fort at 
Castle-field, as if the soldiers of the Caesars, accustomed as they were to the climate 
of the sunny south, required a cooling place in Britain. Certain it is that this was 
the home of the feudatory lords of Manchester until 142 1, when its noble and 
reverend owner, Thomas de la Warr, the pious priest-lord, as he has been 
called, gave it as a residence for the warden and fellows of the church he had 
caused to be collegiated, and in their possession it remained for a century and 
a quarter. The College — for by that name it is still known — escaped the trying 
period of the dissolution of religious houses, but in the first year of King 
Edward the Sixth the collegiate body was dissolved, and their dwelling-place 
demised by the Crown to Edward Stanley, third Earl of Derby. Just one hun- 
dred years later the Stanleys were in turn dispossessed ; the Cromwellian 
Committee of Sequestration seized the building, and used it partly as a 
magazine for the ammunition of the Parliamentary forces, and partly as a 
prison for the confinement of Royalist delinquents. In his lifetime Hum- 



( i8 ) 

phrey Chetham had expressed a desire to obtain possession of the College 
for the benevolent and praiseworthy institution he contemplated founding-, 
and, in accordance with the tenor of his will, his executors effected the pur- 
chase of the building in 1654, since when it has been used for the purposes 
of the Blue-coat Hospital and as a Library — the first really free public library 
established in England, The building stands upon the edge of a precipitous 
sandstone rock close to the confluence of the Irk and the Irwell. The appear- 
ance from the north side is very picturesque, and it requires little but its former 
battlements to transport the mind back to the days of the Henrys and the 
Edwards ; nor is the impression removed on entering the spacious but silent 
courtyard, for, as he passes beneath the gateway, the visitor at once leaves the 
noise, the hurry, and the bustle of a city immersed in trade and commerce, for 
peaceful solitude and seclusion ; so little, indeed, does the place seem altered 
since the days 

" When priests their orisons and vespers sung," 

that imagination might readily recall the ancient occupants peopling the pan- 
elled chambers, the gloomy corridors, and shadowy recesses with the stately 
lords or severe and formal ecclesiastics of the period when it was erected. 

James presents us with two views. No. 28 is taken from the north bank 
of the Irk, and shows the long line of building with its low-browed roof, its 
narrow mullioned windows, its gabled projections, and tall clustering chimney- 
shafts. No. 17 represents the antique arched gateway leading to the court- 
yard : on the right of the gateway we get a view of the old Grammar School, 
erected in 1776-7 on the site of Hugh Oldham's original foundation, a gloomy, 
smoke-begrimed building of brick, without any pretensions to architectural 
excellence. In the front gable will be noticed an oval medallion, on which is 
carved, in relief, an owl — the bird of wisdom, — the crest of the good bishop 
who founded the school, and who took as his motto Sapere ande. The cottage 
on the extreme right of the picture, with the oaken branch (the ensign of a 
Church-and-King man) placed over the doorway, was for many years the abode 
of that eccentric divine but profound scholar the Rev. Joshua Brookes, who for 
thirty-one years filled the office of chaplain of the " old " church. 

The black-and-white gabled structure represented in No. 22 was the resi- 
dence of the High Master of the Free Grammar School. It stood in the Long 



( 19 ) 

Mill-gate, and was taken down in 1835, the site being now occupied by the new 
school buildings. 

Nearly opposite to the School-house stood, until within the last year or two, 
a cluster of dilapidated dwellings represented in No. 35, which tradition affirms 
to have been the habitations of the first colony of Flemish weavers, whom the 
emissaries of Edward the Third induced to settle in this country, tempted, as 
quaint old Fuller tells us, by the hope of mating with the " English beauties." 
They brought with them their craft and mystery, and thus laid the foundation 
for that manufacturing industry which has raised Manchester to such a pre- 
eminence in the commercial world. Were it not for spoiling so pretty a story, 
we might venture a doubt as to the foundation on which the tradition rests, 
for a cursory glance almost forces us to the conclusion that these buildings 
are of a date long subsequent to that assigned them. 

Deansgate, the most ancient of all our public thoroughfares — a roadway that 
dates from the time of Tarquin and the doings of the Arthurian knights, and which 
has been trod successively by Saxon, Dane, and Norman, was entirely omitted 
in Ralston's delineations of Old Manchester, and has furnished only two subjects 
for the pencil of James. The first of them (No. 18) presents us with a view of 
the tottering pile which formerly stood at the lower end of Deansgate, between 
Shepherds-court — " Shepp-des Court " as it was called two centuries and a half 
ago — and Smithy-door-bank. In early days it had been the abode of gentility, 
for at one time this was accounted the fashionable quarter ; and pleasantly must 
the houses then have been situated, with their gardens and pleasure-grounds 
reaching down to the river's brink ; but in later days, and up to the time of its 
demolition, the building was occupied as a tavern, and bore the sign of the Wool- 
pack. Contiguous to the old tenement was another dwelling of equal antiquity, 
that in the early part of last century passed into the possession of that accom- 
plished scholar and critic Robert Thyer, when he took to wife the winsome 
widow of John, son of Peter Leigh, of the West Hall, in Cheshire, the great 
grandfather of the present Officer of Health for Manchester. 

In the old house two or three doors below the Woolpack, and nearer 
Smithy-door-bank, was born, on July 2, 1789, one who in after-years attained 
to considerable eminence in his native town, Thomas Sowler, the founder of 
the widely-circulating and influential journal that for more than half a cen- 
tury has been the leading organ of the Conservative party in the North of 



( 20 ) 

England, the Manchester Courier. Mr. Sowler died on November 18, 1857, 
at the ripe age of sixty-eight. Through life he had been a man of consistent 
principle, sterling integrity, and kindly, social feeling. His biographer has 
described him as " one of the few remaining links which connected the new 
generation in Manchester with the old, with the pupils of Lawson, with the 
members of the Pitt Club, with the more homely but perhaps not less enjoyable 
days when mayor and corporation were in the womb of time, when the 
' boroughreeve ' was a reverential title, and the office of churchwarden remained 
intact ' in full-blown dignity.' " 

The other view (No. 29) is taken from near the end of St. Ann's-street, 
and preserves the features of another of the mouldering old houses of which 
the Deansgate of bygone days was mainly comprised. This building, which 
abutted upon the Golden Lion (a house that has itself been rebuilt, and is now 
known as the Regent Hotel), was taken down half a century ago for the 
widening of the present St. Mary's-street, and a portion of the site is now 
occupied by the Three Arrows. 

In the work of transformation that has been going on during the last few 
years, nearly all the old landmarks of this ancient highway have disappeared, 
and the few that remain are in the midst of surroundings entirely out of cha- 
racter with their antiquated features. Until very recently, Deansgate was only 
a narrow and inconveniently-crowded thoroughfare. By the spirit of modern 
enterprise it has become transformed into one of the most spacious as well as 
one of the handsomest streets in the kingdom, rivalling even Regent-street 
itself in the imposing character of its buildings. 

In Nos. 30 and 33 our artist takes us further afield. The first of these is 
a drawing of the picturesque group of cottages which until about a quarter of a 
century back stood on the easterly side of the Lower Broughton-road, near the 
Priory, and familiarly known as Broughton-spout. No. 33 is an erection dating 
apparently from the Jacobean era, when, owing to the decay of our northern 
forests, timber was being gradually discarded, and brick and stone had begun 
to take its place as the chief materials in the construction of domestic buildings. 
The view represents an old house that formerly existed at Cross-lane, Salford ; 
in its outward aspect the building presents a marked contrast to those pre- 
viously noticed, the walls being entirely of brick, arranged in places in lozenge- 
shaped patterns, with windows divided into separate lights by stone mullions. 



( 21 ) 

When the drawing was made railways were undreamt of, and what is now a 
thickly-populated district was a picturesque suburb of Manchester. 

In Nos. 20 and 34 we have two views of the antiquated cluster of dwellings 
and miscellaneous structures that formerly stood upon the edge of the rock 
and partly overhung the Irwell at the point near where the iron bridge connects 
Strangeways with Greengate, Salford ; they were taken down about the year 
18 1 7, when the bridge which preceded the present structure was erected. 

St. Augustine's Chapel, Granby-row, a view of which is given in No. 16, is 
a building of comparatively modern date, and can hardly therefore claim to rank 
among the memorials of ancient Manchester. It was erected in 1820 for the 
use of the Roman Catholic body, at a cost, it is said, of ,£10,000, the architect 
being Mr. John Palmer, the author of the " Siege of Manchester," and the 
architect of the extensive restorations in the fabric of the " old church," which 
were commenced in 18 14, and continued with slight intermissions only until 
1823. Within a few days of the opening of the chapel, the remains of the 
Rev. Rowland Broomhead, who for forty years had laboured as a Catholic 
priest in Manchester, were consigned to the vaulted cemetery. 

With the exception of the two views of Salford Cross, Ralston's drawings 
were limited to buildings within the town of Manchester. The subjects of 
James's views were of a more miscellaneous character, and extended over a 
wider area, embracing, in addition to those we have already described, twelve 
illustrations of old halls and manor-houses in the adjoining districts, the greater 
portion of which have now ceased to have an existence. To fully describe these 
antiquated residences in the limited space at our disposal would be impossible ; 
we must therefore be content with the most meagre notice of them. 

Of Garratt Hall (No. 13) not a vestige remains. Fifty years ago, when 
James's drawing was made, the district in which it was situate formed a 
pleasant outskirt of the town ; now it is crowded with manufactories, and the 
surrounding atmosphere is dense with the murky vapours arising therefrom. 
The picturesque old mansion stood on the left bank of the Medlock, close to 
the point at which Brook-street, then called Garratt-road, crosses it, and like many 
other of the old halls of Lancashire, was built of timber and plaster, with 
deep projecting bays, gabled roofs, and tall clustering chimneys. At an early 
date it was the residence of a branch of the old local family of the Traffords, 
and in the reign of Henry the Seventh was in the occupation of George 



( 22 ) 

Trafford and his wife Margaret. In the statutes appended to the foundation 
charter of the Free Grammar-school, dated 16 Henry VIII., it is directed that 
the scholars shall say daily the Litany, with the responses and supplications 
following-, " for the sawles of George Traford of the Garret and Margarett his 
wif, then and then next imydiately insuying, when and what tyme it shall please 
God Almighty, of his mcy and gee, to call for the said George and Margarett, 
or auther of them ; " from which it may be inferred that they were benefactors of 
Bishop Oldham's school. Ralph Trafford, the last of the line who made Garratt 
his abode, died in 1555 or 1556, after which the hall passed into the possession 
of the Gerards, who sold it in 1596 to Oswald Mosley, of Hough End, a brother 
of Sir Nicholas Mosley, Knt, Lord Mayor of London, who in the same year 
purchased the manor of Manchester. Samuel Mosley, who succeeded as heir 
to his father Oswald, alienated the estate. In the early part of the last 
century the house was in the possession of Thomas Mynshull, of Chorlton 
Hall, a representative of the Mynshulls of Wistaston, in Cheshire, and a kins- 
man of Elizabeth Mynshull, the third wife of England's great epic poet, 
John Milton. In 1769, Barbara, the widow of Thomas Mynshull, conveyed the 
property in marriage to a second husband, Roger Aytoun, of Inchdarney, in 
the county of Fife, a cornet in the Marquis of Lothian's regiment of dragoons, 
and a gentleman whose reckless and improvident habits had then acquired for 
him the cognomen of " Spanking Roger." The story of the marriage is not 
without an element of romance. It is related that Madam Mynshull, then a 
widow of sixty-five, having been present at a parade of Lothian's dragoons in 
St. Ann's-square, was charmed by the appearance of the dashing young cornet, 
who is described as being a fine handsome fellow, six feet four inches in height, 
and, in short, fell in love with him ; a dinner at Chorlton Hall to the officers of 
the regiment followed, and in the end " Spanking Roger " became the husband 
of Thomas Mynshull's widow, and the owner of his extensive estates, including 
Chorlton Hall, Garratt Hall, and Hough Hall, in Moston, with the lands in the 
neighbourhood of Portland-street — then called Garratt-lane — which still pre- 
serve the memories of other days in the names of Mynshull-street, Aytoun- 
street, and Chorlton-street. The match proved a disastrous one, for within a 
week of his marriage the spendthrift cornet deserted his wife ; the large 
property he had acquired with her was rapidly dissipated to supply his extrava- 
gance, and in 1774, Garratt, with Chorlton and Hough Halls, was disposed of. 



( 2 3 ) 

Subseqently the old hall was divided into several tenements, and having fallen 
into decay, was taken down about thirty years ago. 

Crumpsall Hall, of which two views are given (Nos. 19 and 27), has an 
especial interest, as being the birthplace of one of Manchester's worthiest sons, 
Humphrey Chetham, the founder of the hospital and library which bears his 
name. The Chethams were an offshoot of the family of the same name living 
at Nuthurst, on the northern confines of Manchester, and are supposed to have 
settled at Crumpsall sometime during the reign of Henry the Eighth, the founder 
of the line being Edward Chetham, the great-grandfather of Humphrey, who was 
born here in 1580. Humphrey's eldest brother, James, succeeded to the pro- 
perty, which continued in the possession of his descendants for two or three 
generations, when it passed to the Barlows, one of whom was residing here in 
the last century. The house, a picturesque timber building, with gabled roof 
and projecting windows, was situated about two hundred yards from the coach- 
office at Cheetham-hill, near the junction of Humphrey-street with Crescent-road, 
and was taken down about the year 1825. In its demolition a secret staircase 
was discovered in the kitchen gable, leading to a small chamber in the roof, 
supposed to have been used as a hiding-place in unsettled times, and during 
periods of religious persecution. 

Hulme Hall, which has furnished two subjects for Mr. James's pencil, was 
in its palmy days, before it had been allowed to fall into a state of dilapidation, 
one of the best specimens of domestic architecture to be found in the neighbour- 
hood of Manchester. It was a large quadrangular building of wood and plaster, 
and occupied an elevated position near the edge of the sandstone rock on the left 
bank of the Irwell. As early as the reign of Henry the Second the manor- 
house of Hulme was in the occupation of a family of the same name. In the 
reign of Henry the Sixth it had passed into the possession of the Prestwiches, 
a branch of the old family of Prestwich of Prestwich, and in 1434 Ralph de 
Prestwych granted it to Henry de Byrom, in whose possession, however, it 
only remained five years, the same Henry reconveying it in 1439 to the said 
Ralph. In the days of the virgin queen it was owned by Edmund Prestwych, 
who had the honour of receiving a missive from Elizabeth requiring him to 
furnish the sum of ,£50 as a " voluntary contribution " to the necessities of the 
State. The house continued in the same family until after the troublous times 
of Charles the First, when Thomas Prestwich, who had become impoverished 



( ^4 ) 

by fines and sequestrations during the Civil wars, mortgaged the old ancestral 
home in 1654 to Nicholas Mosley of Ancoats, whose brother, Sir Edward 
Mosley, Knt, became the owner by purchase in 1660. In 1685, his daughter 
and heiress, Ann Mosley, the founder of St. Ann's Church, conveyed the 
estate in marriage to Sir John Bland, of Kippax-park, in Yorkshire, and their 
descendant, Sir John Bland, sold it in 1751 to George, son of Gamaliel Lloyd, 
of Manchester, the grandfather of Mary Anne Lloyd, who became the wife of 
the late Rev. Cecil Daniel Wray, Canon of Manchester. In 1764 the manor 
and mansion were purchased from George Lloyd by the Duke of Bridgewater, 
whose trustees pulled down the old hall to make room for buildings in connec- 
tion with the Bridgewater Canal. Hulme Hall forms the scene of Mr. Harrison 
Ainsworth's earliest romance, " Sir John Chiverton," a story of the days of 
chivalry. Tradition states that the former owner, Thomas Prestwich, was 
induced by his mother, the Dowager Lady Prestwich, to make large pecuniary 
sacrifices in the cause of Charles the First by the assurance that she had a 
large amount of concealed treasure wherewith to repay the expenditure. It 
was currently supposed that the treasure was hidden in the hall or its imme- 
diate vicinity, and tradition taking up the story, affirmed that it was protected 
by unhallowed charms, that could only be dissolved by a spell, the secret of 
which was in the keeping of Lady Prestwich. Unfortunately for her son, the 
old lady was seized with apoplexy, and dying speechless, the secret was never 
discovered. Thomas Prestwich, in acknowledgment of his services to the royal 
cause, and as a solace for the losses he had sustained, was created a baronet. 
The title appears to have expired with him, though so recently as 1795 it 
was assumed by John Prestwich, who claimed to be a direct descendant. This 
person, writing in 1793 to Thomas Barrett, the antiquary, who had made some 
inquiries respecting his genealogy, says : — " As to my pedigree, which you 
desire me to furnish you with, I shall inform you that it stands in need of 
repairs, as it is almost worn out with age ! insomuch that it wants the riches 
or lands that formerly were attached to it, and which are now much wanted to 
mend it : without these all is vanity." 

Blackley Hall (No. 25), like the other of the old mansions we have named, 
has disappeared. At an early date it belonged to the Byrons, ancestors of 
the poet-lord, one of whom, Sir John Byron, sold the estate in 16 15, when 
it became the property of the Asshetons of Middleton, who in 1636 sold it 



( 2 5 ) 

to the Leghs of Lyme, and in their possession it continued until the early 
part of the present century, when the estate was divided and sold in lots, 
William Grant, immortalized by Dickens as one of the Cheeryble Brothers, 
becoming the owner of the Hall. The building would appear to have been 
erected at two distinct periods, one portion being of timber and plaster, and 
the other, of later date, being of brick, with mullioned windows and dressings 
of stone. 

Of the early history of Ancoats Hall, a view of which is given in No. 31, 
comparatively little is known. Whitaker, the historian, argues, though upon 
slender testimony, that there was a house here in Saxon times. In the reign of 
Henry the Eighth the estate was held from the De la Warrs, lords of Manches- 
ter, by Sir Edmond Trafford of Trafford, Knt., whose eldest son, Edmond, 
married Mary, sister of Queen Katherine Howard ; and thus brought the Traffords 
in close alliance with the Crown. From this old Lancashire family Ancoats 
passed to the Byrons of Clayton, who were afterwards ennobled for their services 
in the cause of Charles the First, by the title of Barons Byron of Rochdale. 
The Byrons held possession only for a comparatively short period, and in 1609 
sold the Hall for ,£250 to Oswald Mosley, ancestor of the present Sir Tonman 
Mosley, Bart. ; and in his heirs it continued for several generations. The chief 
historical interest arises from the fact that the house is said to have afforded shelter 
to Prince Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, when he visited the North of 
England previous to his landing in Scotland in 1745. This visit is not recorded 
in the local histories, but it is said that, on the Prince entering Manchester at 
the head of the Scottish army, he was recognized as having been a guest at 
Ancoats in the previous year. Whether the story is true or not, it is certain 
that Sir Oswald Mosley, the then owner of Ancoats, was a stanch supporter of 
the Stuart cause. The half-timbered structure shown in James's view was taken 
down some years ago, and rebuilt in the Tudor Gothic style, at the cost of the 
then owner, George Murray, Esq.; the mansion has since been bought by the 
Midland Railway Company, and in all probability will shortly be demolished by 
that hungry and still much-devouring line. 

There are few families that have become more wide-spread than the Rad- 
cliffes. Taking their name from Radcliffe, or the Red-cliff, on the banks of the 
Irwell, near Bury, where they were located anterior to the reign of Henry the 
Second, they have in various reigns filled some of the highest offices in the 



( 26 ) 

kingdom, and spread into many flourishing branches ; as the Radcliffes of Ordsall, 
Foxdenton, Smithells, Wimmarley, Chadderton, Manchester, Todmorden, and 
Mellor, and have been ennobled by the several titles of Barons Fitzwalter, Earls 
of Sussex, and Earls of Derwentwater. Sir John Radcliffe, a younger son of 
Richard Radcliffe, of Radcliff Tower, was seated at Ordsall in 1302, and 
was elected a Knight of the Shire 14 Edward III. (1340-41). He married 
Jennet, or Johanna, daughter of Sir Robert Holland, and sister of Thomas, Earl 
of Kent, the husband of Joan Plantagenet, better known as " The Fair Maid 
of Kent," who afterwards became the wife of Edward the Black Prince ; and 
his descendants continued at Ordsall for more than three centuries and a half, 
the last of the race who resided there being Sir Alexander Radcliffe, the father of 
John Radcliffe, of Attilborough, who died at Stoke about the year 1669, when 
the Ordsall line . became extinct, and the estate passed by purchase into 
other hands. 

In its palmy days, when the Radcliffes held sway, Ordsall might be fairly 
accounted as one of the " Stately Homes" of England, and with its encircling moat, 
its pendent drawbridge, and stern portal, it furnished a fine example of domestic 
architecture. Though now shorn of its original dimensions, as well as of much of 
its ancient splendour, it still retains many of its more ancient features, conveying 
to the mind an idea of the Manor-house as it existed in the stormy times when 
York and Lancaster contended for the crown. The moat has long since been 
filled up, and the drawbridge has no longer an existence; but the edifice still 
maintains an imposing appearance, though only two sides of the quadrangle still 
remain, the old courtyard being now a. spacious grass-grown lawn. In the 
interior, the great hall, with its massive clustered columns of timber, its moulded 
arches, now, alas ! hidden from view by intervening floors, and its crenelated 
tie-beams, presents a fine example of mediaeval work ; and the " Star-chamber," 
as it is called, with its " storied windows," and peculiarly-fashioned oriel, is 
another apartment well worthy of careful examination. 

The scene of one of Ainsworth's most popular romances, " Guy 
Fawkes," is laid at Ordsall, though it is hardly necessary to say that the 
arch-conspirator was never a visitor there, nor is there any ground for con- 
necting the Radcliffes with his plot. After the house had ceased to be 
occupied by the Radcliffes, it was divided into tenements and let to humbler 
occupants, who appear to have attached small import to the interest derived 



( 2 7 ) 

from antiquity, their chief care being to keep the roof over their heads. The 
building is now owned by Lord Egerton of Tatton, and being one of the very 
few old mansions now remaining in the neighbourhood of Manchester, it may 
be hoped that it will be kept from further decay and preserved as a relic of 
times that are happily gone by. A view of the principal front of the Hall, 
showing its advanced bays, its overhanging gables, and huge columnar chim- 
neys, is shown in plate No. 36. 

The old Rectory-house at Prestwich, Deyne Hall as it was sometimes 
called, a view of which is given in No. 39, was a large wood and timber 
building of considerable antiquity, that derived its name from the dene or 
deyne, a deep clough or dingle at the rear. It had an existence as early as 
1484, when Ralph Langley, afterwards warden of Manchester, a scion of the 
Langleys of Agecroft, was parson of Prestwich. In 1644, when Presby- 
terianism had gained the ascendancy, the Rectory-house was attacked by the 
Parliament party and a portion of it demolished, the rector, the Rev. Isaac 
Allen, being himself seized and removed to Manchester, where he suffered a 
term of imprisonment. One of the rectors who resided here at a subsequent 
date was the Rev. John Lake, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, one of the 
famous seven bishops who resisted the designs of James the Second when 
attempting to re-introduce Popery in England, and who was committed to the 
Tower by that misguided monarch for his courage in opposing the mandate of 
the Crown, when that authority sought to overstep the limits of the Consti- 
tution. In 1840 the interesting old pile was taken down by the then rector, 
the Rev. Thomas Blackburne, when the present structure, a building in the 
Tudor Gothic style, was erected on its site. 

Trafford Hall (No. 41) has little of antiquity to boast of, the present 
structure being a modern erection of freestone, with a semicircular front divided 
by columns ; attached to the building, however, are a few brick gables, the 
remains of an earlier edifice. The Traffords, who are lords of Barton and 
Stretford, have been located here since the days of Randulphus de Trafford, 
living in the reign of Edward the Confessor, who was lord of Trafford, and 
whose lands passed uninterruptedly in the male line for eight centuries. The 
present owner is Sir Humphrey de Trafford, Bart., a grandson of John 
Trafford of Croston, Esq., who became possessed of the Trafford estates 
on the death of his kinsman, Humphrey de Trafford, in 1779. 



( 28 ) 

If Crumpsall claims the honour of giving birth to Humphrey Chetham, 
Turton Tower (No. 45) deserves to be remembered as having been, for many 
years, the home of that benevolent " worthy." The tower is a fine old castellated 
building of stone, with a half-timbered dwelling attached, and continues to 
the present day in excellent preservation, every care being taken to protect 
it from tasteless innovations. Tradition says that the tower was built in 
1596 by John Orrell, a representative of the knightly family of that name, 
and that the cost was so great as to have permanently impoverished him. 
Eventually, in 1628, it was sold for the sum of ^3,000 to Humphrey Chetham, 
and here he cotinued to reside until his death in 1653. After his decease, 
Turton was held successively by his heirs, Humphrey, Samuel, and Edward 
Chetham ; and Ann, one of the co-heiresses of the last-named, conveyed it in 
marriage to the Blands, from whom it again passed by distaff to the Greens. 
It is now owned by James Kay, Esq. 

Broughton Hall (No. 47) was formerly a seat of the Stanleys, a family 
claiming descent from the Earls of Derby, the founder being Henry Stanley, a 
natural son of Henry, fourth Earl of Derby, by Jane Halsall, of Knowsley, who 
had the manor of Broughton assigned to him by his father, with permission to 
adopt the name. Ferdinando, son and heir of Henry Stanley, was a steady 
supporter of the royalist cause during the Civil Wars, and in 1646 compounded 
for his estates by the payment of ^"150, an impost the king was too powerless 
to resist on behalf of his friends. After the Restoration he was appointed a 
commissioner for the county of Lancaster to assist in carrying out the pro- 
visions of an Act passed 29 Charles II., which imposed a tax upon the country 
" for the speedy building thirty shipps of warr." The estate, which had 
become greatly impaired during the troublous times of the Commonwealth, 
passed, in 1699, into the hands of George Chetham, who, in 1706, built the 
present structure on the site of the old hall. His son James dying without 
issue, the property passed to his cousin Edward Chetham, of Smedley and 
Castleton, the last male descendant of the family, who died unmarried in 1 768, 
when the manor of Broughton descended to his younger sister and coheiress 
Mary, wife of Samuel Clowes, of Chaddock ; the fourth in direct descent from 
whom, Samuel William Legh Clowes, M.P. for North Leicestershire, is the 
present owner. 

The old house shown in No. 60 was, a century ago, the town residence of 



( 2 9 ) 

the Dickensons, a family that had accumulated considerable property in trade, 
and it derives interest from the circumstance that within its walls the Pre- 
tender was lodged and entertained on the occasion of his visit to Manchester 
in 1745, by Mr. John Dickenson, the then owner; and in honour of that event 
it was afterwards known as the " Palace." The house fronted to Market- 
street, and was afterwards converted into a tavern called the " Palace Inn." 
Subsequently it was pulled down, and a pile of warehouses erected on the 
site, the name being still preserved in " Palace-buildings " and Palace-street." 
The year in which he entertained the Prince, Mr. Dickenson became the 
purchaser of the Birch Hall estate in Rusholme ; and he removed to his villa 
there the bed on which it is said the Prince slept. It remained at Birch for 
about a century, and was sold, on the death of Miss Dickenson, a few years 
ago. Mr. Dickenson's grandson, who inherited the family estates, married 
Mary, daughter of the Hon. Charles Hamilton, eldest son of Lord Archibald 
Hamilton, and grandson of William, Duke of Hamilton, by whom he had an 
only daughter, Louisa Frances Mary Dickenson, who conveyed the property 
in marriage to General Sir ; William Anson, Bart., K.C.B. ; and by him she 
had, with other issue, Sir John William Hamilton Anson, Bart., who was 
unfortunately killed in the railway accident at Wigan in 1874, and the Vener- 
able George Henry Greville Anson, the present Rector of Birch, and 
Archdeacon of Manchester. 

In plate No. 21 we have drawings of three interesting relics found on the 
south side of the Roman station at Castle-field during the excavations that were 
being made there some years ago, and which some antiquaries, though with 
doubtful probability, have conjectured to have been the site of the St. Michael's 
Church mentioned in the Doomsday Survey. The first figure represents a 
human face perfectly beardless, with the hair turned back, and wearing a kind of 
covering or cap upon the head. It is difficult, if not impossible, to say what 
purpose this carving could have served, though it evidently belonged to some 
building of very early date. The second figure represents a female arrayed in 
a robe with a cap on her head ; the fore-arms are placed across the front part 
of the waist. The third figure was discovered in the same locality in 1821 : 
it represents a man cross-legged ; the elbow of the left arm rests upon a 
battleaxe while giving support to the head, which is covered with what seems 
to be a helmet, the body being habited in a surcoat or tunic. 



( 3o ) 

The other illustrations in the volume are (No. 57) a plan of Manchester 
as it was in 1747, and (No. 58) a plan of Market-street, showing the width of 
the street, and the properties held by different owners before the alterations 
effected under the Improvement Act of 1821. 



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